Julie Delpy continues the screwball-inspired saga of her bicultural persona from “2 Days in Paris” (2007) with “2 Days in New York.” The set-up is the same: Marion (Delpy) weathers gaffes and gaucherie when her American mate meets her French kin, rocking the boat of her romance and art. Chris Rock replaces Adam Goldberg as her boyfriend. They each have a child from respective earlier relationships: her son calls Rock’s character, a public-radio-show host, his “fake daddy,” and his daughter in a “dead princess” costume will be the “first black goth girl” or “the next Francis Bacon,” theorizes Marion. What brings the Parisians to New York is an art gallery exhibiting Marion’s photos of herself in bed, mostly asleep. At the opening, her dealer plans to auction Marion’s soul as a conceptual art work. Cuter is the puppet show that Marion performs and narrates to bookend this diverting “love story with a happy ending.” Delpy co-writes with Alexia Landeau, who once again plays Marion’s rivalrous sib. Heady references include French child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto and The Last Poets, late 1960s radical performers from Harlem, but much of the humor is penis-minded. Delpy’s neurotic mannerisms recall Woody Allen’s comedies, complete with a feared art critic and brain cancer panic, in a good way. With Alex Nahon, Albert Delpy, Kate Burton, Talen Ruth Riley, and Vincent Gallo as himself. 96m. (Bill Stamets)
“2 Days in New York” opens Friday at Landmark Century.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
